The court of special vigilance judge Madhukar Kumar on Monday heard the bail pleas of suspended IAS officer Sudhir Kumar and Kumar's sister-in-law Manju Devi, arrested in connection with the Bihar Staff Selection Commission question paper leak case.

Sudhir's lawyer Ram Vinay Singh presented his petition, and on Tuesday the court will hear the plea of the public prosecutor challenging the bail petition.

Singh said his client is innocent and has been dragged into the case just because he was holding the top position in the commission as chairman.

"Sudhir Kumar was taken on remand on February 24, but till date the SIT (special investigation team) has failed to gather any evidence against him," the lawyer claimed.

The SIT, the lawyer declared, is trying to "create evidence" in the case against Sudhir to try and establish a link between Sudhir and his nephew and sister-in-law who were appearing for the commission's clerical grade exam that was eventually called off after the leak came to light.

Police sources, however, claimed that the SIT has collected evidence against Sudhir and others, much of it electronic, and submitted the evidences to the court.

This, the sources said, includes forensic evidence and the mobile phone call detail record of a few commission employees. The evidences submitted also include a recording of a call between Sudhir, arrested commission secretary Parmeshwar Ram, exam sheet organiser Anand Brar, and printing press owner Vinit Agarwal.

The SIT had arrested Brar from New Delhi, while Agarwal was nabbed from Gujarat.

Sudhir was held from his home in Jharkhand, and his arrest had sparked a face-off between the bureaucracy and the state government.